The term “additive manufacturing” refers to processes used to synthesize three dimensional objects using digital models or other electronic data sources. So-called “3d printers” are capable of receiving a series of instructions corresponding to a particular object and controlling the hardware utilizing a manufacturing medium (e.g., metallic alloys, resins, rubbers, clays, photopolymers, ceramic matrices, and the like) to construct that particular object. Advances in this technology have increased the ability to perform these manufacturing processes faster and more accurately than ever before.
However, the ability to reconstruct an object from a digital representation using arbitrary manufacturing equipment and material introduces certain technical challenges related to the verification and validation of constructed objects. Current systems for additive manufacturing lack verification and validation systems for ensuring that objects produced by the process are appropriately certified. If, for example, a replacement part for an industrial asset is possible to produce via an additive manufacturing process, any user with access to an appropriately configured additive manufacturing device can reproduce the part. End users who purchase or otherwise receive such a part of no way of verifying that a replacement part manufactured in this way was produced using a correct build file, using correct manufacturing media, and on a properly configured additive manufacturing device. A fault, failure, or non-standard condition at any step of the additive manufacturing process or with any material component of the produced part may result in a catastrophic failure of that part when installed in the industrial asset.
It would therefore be desirable to provide systems and methods for implementing a historical data record of an additive manufacturing process with verification and validation capabilities that may be integrated into additive manufacturing devices.